2014 F1 season

Bernie Ecclestone’s trial on charges of bribery has come to an end after he offered to pay £59m ($100m) as a settlement.

German law permits defendants to settle trials by payment in some situations, without being judged guilty or innocent.

It brings an end to a trial which lasted four months and threatened to leave Ecclestone with a prison sentence of up to ten years had he been found guilty.

Bayerische Landesbank claimed Ecclestone had bribed their employee Gerhard Gribkowsky with £27m ($44m) in 2006 to ensure Formula One was sold to its current owners CVC Capital Partners. They alleged he preferred CVC as a buyer because they would keep him in charge of the sport.

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the affair in June 2012.

128 comments on Ecclestone pays £59m to end bribery trial

This case is truly incredible and a slap in the face of society. The person that accepted the bribe is in jail and the person that paid it is not.

It is also complete nonsense that after three years of this trial, and with only 3 months left and the court’s admission of likely acquittal, Ecclestone is paying to end it “because he is tired of it”.

Why not wait just 3 more months after enduring three whole years???? Something doesn’t add up at all.

Bernie Ecclestone has to get out of F1 and that is right after this court case fiasco which is right now and never ever return again. He is becoming a liability to F1 with this fraud case that he paid his way out of, with his criticism of the social media when he suggested that F1 did not need an official social media presence, because he felt platforms like Twitter and Facebook had no future, with him and the FIA wanting to scrap some of the most iconic F1 tracks over time like Monza. Bernie should put his feet up [for god’s sake he’s approaching 84 in October] because he’s got an F1 transporter tuck full of money “What Else Does He Want”? He’s made enough money out of F1 to last him and his family 10 lifetimes. Bernie get out of F1 before it’s good for you and for F1 and let the people that know what they are doing run F1, [and that does not include the FIA as one of them.